Oliver's Influence
by kurisuchin45556
Summary: There's a new strahl candidate, and he's causing quite a stir. His name is Oliver. He's charming, sweet, smart, handsome, and can see into the future. He's worming his way into everyone's hearts, some more than others. yaoi lemon LuixOC major OOC for Lui


Orpherus looked up at the sound of someone calling his name. When he saw no one, he turned his eyes back to the book he was studying. A few moments later, he heard his name again. This time when he looked up, he saw his best friend Eduard running toward him, waving his hands frantically in the air.

"Orphe, Orphe, come quickly!" Eduard yelled.

Orpherus stood up, "What is it Ed, what has happened?"

Ed stopped in front of his friend and panted for a moment before speaking, "The headmaster has called all the strahl candidates together, he says it's important."

Orphe nodded and began to walk towards the school, eager to know what was so important that the headmaster had called them all together. "Do you have any idea what this could be about Ed?"

Ed nodded, "Yea, I think it's about the new student we're supposed to be getting."

Orphe looked over at his friend while they continued to walk, "What about the new student? That should have nothing to do with us."

Ed frowned, "I agree, but from what I heard the student was supposed to get here yesterday, and he hasn't shown up yet."

They stopped talking after that, for they had reached the headmaster's office. Not bothering to knock, they walked in to see the other strahl candidates standing around the room, clearly they had been waiting.

"Forgive us," Orphe said, "We're late."

The headmaster shook his head, "It's fine, but right now we have a very serious matter to discuss. As I'm sure all of you have heard, we were expecting a new student yesterday. What you didn't know was that he was to be another strahl candidate."

Camus gasped and Ludwig's head shot up.

"Another strahl candidate? I thought you had to be part of the school from the beginning to be a strahl candidate." Ludwig said, clearly confused.

The headmaster nodded, "yes, that is usually the case, but one of the current strahls recommended him, and I couldn't refuse."

Naoji nodded in understanding. "I see, so what does this have to do with us?"

The others all turned to the headmaster, expectantly waiting for his answer.

"Well, like I said, he was supposed to arrive yesterday, and he very clearly has not. He was to pass through three checkpoints on his way here. He passed through the third, but never made it here last night."

"Do we know what happened?" Camus asked.

"Yes, well, some of it. I sent one of the guards out to look for him, and he found the carriage and the three guard that were supposed to be accompanying Oliver."

"Oliver?" Ed asked.

"Yes, that's his name Oliver Horioka."

Naoji's eyes widened, "You can't possibly mean the son of Nowaki Horioka?"

The headmaster nodded, "I do mean him. He came to live in Kuchen a few years ago, and became well acquainted with one of the current strahl. But right now that doesn't matter. When I said that the guards were found, they were found dead."

Naoji looked horror struck, "Do we know anything of Oliver's whereabouts?"

"Yes and no. There were hoofprints leading away from the scene, and the pattern on the shoes means that it was Oliver's horse. He obviously got away. We need to find him, before whoever attacked him does." The headmaster looked at all of the candidates, "All of you are to go to the scene and see if you can track Oliver down. He doesn't know his way around these parts and could be injured, he needs to be brought back here as soon as possible."

"Yes sir!" All of the candidates said while saluting.

As they walked out of the room they talked amongst each other, trying to figure out what strategy was best for finding their missing comrade.

Orphe turned to Naoji, "have you ever met Oliver?" he asked.

Everyone stopped talking at the question. Naoji nodded, "Only once, and we were much younger. I don't know much about him, but he was small for our age, had black hair, and green eyes. That's all I can tell you."

Camus smiled, "That's enough, now we know what he looks like."

Ed nodded, "That's right, we're going to need that information if we're gong to find him."

Ludwig spoke up at that moment. "I think we had better hurry an get going, we don't want Oliver to have to spend another night in the wild by himself."

At that they all packed food and warm clothes in their saddle bags and then grabbed their horses. When everyone was saddled up and ready to go, they set off.

When they arrived at the scene where the carriage had been found, they all noticed signs of a struggle. There was blood splattered on the ground and the carriage had been torn to pieces. All of Oliver's belongings were still in the carriage, including his sword, which meant he was unarmed.

Camus hopped off his horse and began to inspect the scene further. When he touched the carriage he felt a jolt of energy run through him and then his vision went momentarily blank. When he could see again, he saw a battle. The guards were fighting off multiple attackers. One of them shouted for Oliver to run, and run Oliver did. Camus couldn't see his face, but he saw him jump on the horse and ride off into the woods. The scene faded out and he was once again looking at the carriage.

"Camus?" Ludwig asked, concerned for his cousin, who had suddenly become still.

"I'm alright Lui, I had a vision."

Naoji jumped down from his horse and walked over to Camus, "What did you see?"

Camus looked up at his friend and tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace, "I saw the battle. There were many attackers, but the gurard held them off so Oliver could get away. He rode off that way." Camus pointed to the forest on their right.

Orphe smiled, "Nice job Camus, now we don't have to wonder if he actually got away."

Ludwig nodded, "yes, but we should start searching, it will be dark in just 6 hours, we need to find him before then."

Naoji and Camus mounted their horses again and they all rode off into the woods.

They all followed the tracks for over an hour. Every now and then they would find a long white hair, clearly the horse's, and at one point they found a small pool of blood. This frightened all of them. If Oliver was hurt, they needed to find him soon.

After nearly 3 hours of searching, they decided to take a quick break. They all sat down, gave their horses a chance to eat, and discussed what they were going to do next.

"I think we need to keep going, we're getting close, I can feel it." Camus said.

Orphe and Ed nodded in agreement, "Yes, every time we find blood it's fresher, I believe we're close as well, and who are we to argue with Camus's intuition?"

Naoji looked unsure, of their reasoning, but he didn't want to stop either. They had no way of knowing if Oliver was the one that was injured, and if it was serious, he could die. He didn't want to think of the possibility that Oliver could already be dead.

Ludwig didn't say anything, so they all took it as a sign of agreement.

After half an hour, they set out again. Another half hour and they reached the edge of the trees. When they stepped out, they were in a meadow, and standing not far from them, was a white horse, saddled and bridled.

The candidates wasted no time and rushed over to the horse. Camus was once again the first to the ground and he did a quick inspection of the horse, and confirmed their fears, there were no wounds on the animal. He looked down and saw a small trail of blood, leading away. "come on guys, he went this way."

They didn't look long before they found him. Sitting perfectly still, leaning heavily against a large rock.

Naoji instantly went to work inspecting Oliver's wounds, and found multiple small cuts all over his body. When he went to lift up Oliver's shirt, a hand reached out and grabbed him around the neck. "D-Don't touch me."

Naoji followed the hand and found it connected to Oliver, who's eyes were open slightly, and was clearly afraid. "It's alright, we're the strahl candidates from Rozenstolz."

Oliver immediately let go of Naoji's neck and looked around at the faces peering down at him, "Sorry, thought you were one of the people who attacked my group."

Ludwig stepped up and knelt down, "We were sent to bring you to the academy, do you think you can stand?"

Oliver shook his head, and when he spoke his voice came out in barely a whisper, "No, I'm dizzy just sitting down, I think I've lost too much blood."

At hearing that Naoji went back to lifting up Oliver's shirt, and gasped at what he saw. There was a large would on his abdomen, trailing from just under his left ribcage to his right hip. It was clearly deep, and still bleeding.

Camus covered his mouth with his hands, horrified at the wound. Ludwig looked at his cousin for a moment, and then sighed, "Camus, go fetch my horse."

Camus nodded and hurried off back to where all of the horses were. He grabbed Ludwig's stallion and led him to the group. "Here."

Ludwig lifted Oliver under his knees and shoulders and set him on top of the horse, before sliding up behind him. "Let's go."

The others nodded and grabbed their horses, and tied Oliver's to Camus's. They set off at a brisk pace, hoping to make it back to the school before the sun set.

The trip wasn't a smooth one, there were may bumps in the road and objects they had to jump while in the woods, but Oliver did his best not to cry out in pain.

Lui astounded them all but holding the reigns with one hand and holding onto Oliver with the other. He held the man so that his entire arm was pressed into Oliver's stomach, helping to staunch the flow of blood from his wound.

They were nearing the school when Oliver fell into a coughing fit, and something wet splattered on Lui's hand. When he looked down, he found blood dripping from his skin. At that moment Oliver slumped in his arms, and Lui knew that he had fallen unconscious. He pushed his horse as fast as he would go, and sped into the school yard. He then skid to a stop in front of the infirmary and jumped off with Oliver in his arms. When he got inside he called for the doctor and set Oliver gently onto one of the beds.

As soon as the doctor saw the condition Oliver was in he instructed Lui to remove the man's shirt, which Lui did with the utmost care. The doctor grabbed his supply cart and wheeled it over, and began to work. He first cleaned the blood away from the wound on Oliver's stomach and inspected it momentarily, before grabbing his needle and medical thread and began to stich. When he finished he cleaned the wound once again and then bandaged it. He then moved onto the other wounds, which he only cleaned and wrapped since they didn't require stitches. When he was done with Oliver's care he turned to Lui.

"It's uncertain if he will live, he's lost a lot of blood. The next 24 hours will decide his fate." With that, the doctor left to clean himself up.

Lui walked outside where the other strahl candidates where waiting.

"Well?" Orphe asked.

Lui sighed, "His fate is uncertain. If he lives through the next 24 hours he will be ok, but from the way the doctor spoke, it seemed no more than a 50% chance."

Everyone's face became downcast, and Camus looked on the verge of tears.

"Can we see him?" Naoji asked.

Lui shook his head, "The doctor didn't say, so I assume no."

Ed nodded and smiled a bit, "Well, we've done our job, but our horses are exhausted and so am I. We should get them settled in and then have dinner. Perhaps if we came back after that we would be able to see him."

The others nodded and turned to walk away, silently praying for their comrades life to be spared.


End file.
